Plans to provide new allotments for keen gardeners in Honiton are moving forward.

The scheme, for a site off Battishorne Way, was first discussed in 2018 and Honiton Town Council entered into a lease agreement in February 2019.

Last month, the council negotiated with East Devon District Council to receive around £68,000 from the district authority to fund the new allotment plots. A meeting of the town council’s allotment working group was arranged for Friday, February 5.

A report to Monday’s town council meeting said it was “likely that the next step will be to enter the construction contract and that may be resolved at full council in March 2021”.

The report also suggested that “alongside entering the construction contract the council, via its working group, may consider the allocation of plots to those on the waiting list, the operating model, operation, maintenance, fees, licences, etc”.

Town councillor Roy Coombs, a member of the allotments working group, told the Midweek Herald: “A site meeting is due to be held soon with the contractor to agree a schedule of works.

“The site will not provide sufficient allotments for all those on the waiting list, which was commenced in 2003 when the privately owned allotments at Newlands received planning permission for residential development. I believe the fairest allocation of the new allotments would be starting with an offer to the earliest on the waiting list.”

The proposed site for the allotments is a strip of grassland running alongside the Gissage river beside Battishorne Way on land owned by the Combe Estate.

When the town council submitted a planning application for the scheme in 2018, councillor Phil Twiss, who

represents Honiton at district and county level, welcomed the plans, for 30 plots.

He said: “I have no hesitation in recommending approval for this application for much needed allotments in Honiton, that will go part way to satisfying known need.

“I commend the town council in its perseverance over a number of years in bringing this forward to application.

“The site is easily accessible by foot, bicycle for large parts of Honiton and as well as being highly sustainable fulfilling the health and wellbeing agenda of East Devon District Council.”